:00:06. > :00:09.released on bail. -- 15-year-old boy. Next up in Our World, Paulo
:00:09. > :00:12.Cabral reports from the mega-city of Sao Paulo in Brazil, where
:00:12. > :00:17.frustrated commuters fight the worst traffic jams on the planet.
:00:17. > :00:25.This is rush-hour, South American style. Brazil's largest city grinds
:00:25. > :00:35.to a halt and stays that way for much of the day. Every day. I just
:00:35. > :00:48.
:00:48. > :00:55.see a city of cars. A lot of cars. A whole city on wheels,. No city in
:00:55. > :01:03.the world can afford to have so many cars. 7 million cars. We do
:01:03. > :01:09.now have space. I am Paulo Cabral, the BBC correspondent in Brazil.
:01:09. > :01:15.Sao Paulo is the third most populated city in the world. It is
:01:15. > :01:25.my home town. As the economy booms, everybody wants a car. This is the
:01:25. > :01:31.result. In June, a record was set. Traffic jams in Sao Paulo stressed
:01:31. > :01:41.for 250 kilometres in one single day. -- stretched. What can be done
:01:41. > :02:08.
:02:08. > :02:14.to break the gridlock in Brazil's Mornings are not easy for working
:02:14. > :02:18.mothers like Fabiana Crespo. She has to wake up early and often has
:02:18. > :02:28.a hard time getting the children to eat their Breakfast. That is
:02:28. > :03:08.
:03:08. > :03:17.nothing compared to the stress that She sets off for work, ruck Riga is
:03:17. > :03:21.too little for school. -- Rodrigo. She runs the family business and
:03:22. > :03:31.can be with her baby at all day, including the long hours spent in
:03:32. > :03:35.
:03:35. > :03:45.traffic. The beginning of the... She is caught up somewhere here. On
:03:45. > :04:05.
:04:05. > :04:14.a bad day it can take more than two For what seems like hours, they do
:04:14. > :04:22.not move. Rodrigo looks fine, but the endless stop and go drives her
:04:22. > :04:32.hair up the wall. There is nothing to do except wait and turn on the
:04:32. > :04:34.
:04:34. > :04:39.radio. Sulamerica Transito was an instant hit when it appeared five
:04:39. > :04:45.years ago. It is dedicated to reporting traffic jams 24 hours a
:04:45. > :04:52.day. Listeners calling to report bad traffic or to share how they
:04:52. > :04:56.have managed to avoid it. Victoria Ribeiro is one of the reporters,
:04:56. > :05:06.part of her job is to hit the streets to find the traffic jams,
:05:06. > :05:16.
:05:16. > :05:24.it is quite easy. There is an ambulance over there. A car and two
:05:24. > :05:29.motos. Victory has to find other ways for them to break the gridlock,
:05:30. > :05:35.that is often very difficult. is a war. Everybody is very selfish
:05:35. > :05:41.when they are in the car. The radio tries its best to explain and teach
:05:41. > :05:48.everybody that they are in the same boat. You have to pass through this.
:05:48. > :05:58.There is no way you can escape. Already tired and stressed, even
:05:58. > :05:59.
:05:59. > :06:07.before she has began her day at work. Forehead Rego no problem, he
:06:07. > :06:11.calmly sleeps off the traffic. -- for Rodrigo. It has an impact on
:06:11. > :06:18.the cost of living in Sao Paulo. Everything will become more
:06:18. > :06:23.expensive. Economic activities, delivery of goods, it has a major
:06:23. > :06:31.impact in the city. If you have a truck, the truck cannot make more
:06:31. > :06:41.than 6-8 deliveries instead of 15- 20... In the middle of all of this
:06:41. > :07:06.
:07:06. > :07:11.some have found an opportunity. When cars get stuck motorbikes rule.
:07:11. > :07:21.These are Sao Paulo's motorboys, motorbike couriers with a taste for
:07:21. > :07:21.
:07:21. > :07:31.speed and a -- adventure. In rush- hour the motorboys can be the only
:07:31. > :07:50.
:07:50. > :08:00.Here is another man making money, good money out of traffic. Jorge
:08:00. > :08:21.
:08:21. > :08:26.Bitar runs a helicopter taxi Jorge Bitar has 16 helicopters,
:08:26. > :08:36.they released a granite for long. Sao Paulo has one of the largest
:08:36. > :08:38.
:08:38. > :08:43.fleets of private helicopters in the world. -- they rarely stay
:08:43. > :08:52.grounded. More and more rich people are buying helicopters to fly
:08:52. > :09:02.around town. The demand for Howley cup of violence is on the rise. --
:09:02. > :09:08.
:09:08. > :09:16.helicopter pilots. How long do you think it will take to do this trip
:09:16. > :09:24.if you are driving? 1.5 hours. long now? Ten minutes. That is not
:09:24. > :09:33.bad. How does it feel? Good. Flying is not about find or ostentation,
:09:33. > :09:42.it is a business calculation. His hours are worth too much to be
:09:42. > :09:51.wasted in traffic. Better than driving. Have a nice day at work.
:09:51. > :10:00.Goodbye. Back in the air, we took a look at what Sergio was escaping.
:10:00. > :10:04.Miles and miles of stationary traffic. More than 20 million
:10:04. > :10:08.people live in greater Sao Paulo. Every year records are broken for
:10:08. > :10:18.the number of cars sold. 1,000 new vehicles hitting the roads every
:10:18. > :10:21.
:10:21. > :10:26.day. Traffic and stretch for 180 kilometres. It can move two hours
:10:26. > :10:31.to move one city block. No wonder Sao Paulo is gaining a reputation
:10:31. > :10:39.for being the helicopter capital of the world. Hundreds of thousands of
:10:39. > :10:47.people get stuck in what is down there. It is only getting worse.
:10:47. > :10:57.The gridlock is a big problem for drivers, but also an opportunity
:10:57. > :10:57.
:10:57. > :12:08.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 71 seconds
:12:08. > :12:13.Sao Paulo, a city with some of the worst traffic jams in the world. It
:12:13. > :12:20.is really hard to get from A to B in Sao Paulo with all of this heavy
:12:20. > :12:25.traffic. It is frustrating to be here, already late. In the middle
:12:25. > :12:30.of the chaos, you have the traffic wardens of Sao Paulo, the
:12:30. > :12:40.marronzinhos tried to bring some order. It is probably the toughest
:12:40. > :12:50.job in the city. He is one of 2000 marronzinhos. There are days are
:12:50. > :13:05.
:13:05. > :13:13.One car blocking one lane for 15 minutes can cause three kilometres
:13:13. > :13:20.of congestion. Marronzinhos have to work fast to clear the way. In
:13:20. > :13:28.chaotic traffic small accidents are rife. No-one can avoid it. This
:13:28. > :13:38.police car has taken a knock while chasing robbers. The reasons do not
:13:38. > :13:51.
:13:51. > :13:58.matter for her, she just wants to There is a delay while crimes
:13:58. > :14:06.investigators to it SES take a look. Eventually the accident is clear.
:14:06. > :14:12.She can go on her way looking for more trouble. Easing congestion is
:14:12. > :14:19.a dream that every citizen in every large city around the world has.
:14:19. > :14:25.You'll never and congestion. We might bring it to a more reasonable
:14:25. > :14:29.standard. We will never end congestion. When we and congestion
:14:29. > :14:33.people will be attracted to use more cars. That would bring more
:14:33. > :14:39.congestion. We need to reach an equilibrium point in which people
:14:39. > :14:46.will say it is better to use public transport because they will travel
:14:46. > :14:51.faster than they would use in a car. This is the man in charge of public
:14:52. > :15:00.transport in Sao Paulo. Spending on mass transportation has been on the
:15:00. > :15:07.rise. It is not enough to make up for decades of under-investment. He
:15:07. > :15:12.wanted to show me the city's state- of-the-art Metro. People in Sao
:15:12. > :15:19.Paulo are proud of it. The network is a very small. Foley 80
:15:19. > :15:27.kilometres of track, five times less than London or New York. Much
:15:27. > :15:36.more is needed to get people out of their cars. We do not have the
:15:36. > :15:46.space for the cars. Herein Sao Paulo we have 7 million cars. We do
:15:46. > :15:48.
:15:48. > :15:57.not have the space. We have to make some kind of enforcement. Jimmy a
:15:57. > :16:04.congestion charge? Like in London, Singapore. Will politicians be
:16:04. > :16:11.brave enough to do that? They do not want to. We arrive today
:16:11. > :16:21.station near the government. He went to find his car which had
:16:21. > :16:22.
:16:22. > :16:32.driven across town to meet him. Buses are the backbone of the
:16:32. > :16:36.
:16:36. > :16:40.congested transport system. It is also the weakest link. At 6am this
:16:40. > :16:50.driver is about to start to shift, driving one of the city's giant
:16:50. > :16:56.
:16:56. > :17:02.buses. It holds more than 300 people. It is usually full. At
:17:02. > :17:12.first, things go well. The bus fills up fast and we speed into
:17:12. > :17:13.
:17:13. > :17:20.town, down one of the new bus lanes. It does not last for long. Soon the
:17:20. > :17:25.crowded bus is stark in its very own congestion Lane. -- congested
:17:25. > :17:35.lane. The general opinion is that buses are only for those who really
:17:35. > :17:49.
:17:49. > :17:53.This is crowded, comfortable and very slow. Often buses get stuck in
:17:53. > :18:03.the same trap because everybody else. It is no wonder that some
:18:03. > :18:09.people are looking for alternatives. We're going to talk a bit about the
:18:09. > :18:14.safety and my experience in Sao Paulo... This man faced the heavy
:18:14. > :18:20.traffic on Eliza's of vehicles. They tried to teach people how to
:18:20. > :18:30.book a -- how-to bike safely. Riding a bike seems only for the
:18:30. > :18:36.
:18:36. > :18:45.Nine cyclists are admitted into where hospital every day. You can
:18:45. > :18:49.see why. The key message of the cyclists is that they have to
:18:49. > :18:56.claimon the streets and hold on to what, no matter how much noise
:18:56. > :19:06.drivers make. Bacon honked their horns as much as they want. I do
:19:06. > :19:07.
:19:07. > :19:12.not mind. You trust they will not renew were their? I hope not. It
:19:12. > :19:19.that way point where it is almost unreachable to get places in a car.
:19:19. > :19:26.You're stuck in traffic for three hours. A bicycle gives smiles back
:19:26. > :19:36.to your face. If you have a car nobody's as they queue. They just
:19:36. > :19:46.want their horn. -- nobody says thank you. Ideally it hit by a bus.
:19:46. > :19:47.
:19:47. > :19:52.It was a good experience. -- IA nearly. The city authorities are
:19:52. > :19:58.extending the Metro. There are bus lanes. Commuters have been banned
:19:58. > :20:07.from using their cars at certain times one day a week. Often it is
:20:07. > :20:12.still quicker to walk. There is no instant measure. We cannot find
:20:12. > :20:18.something that will come and fix all the problems. The problem we
:20:18. > :20:22.have in Brazil is that in general our society is not very good in
:20:22. > :20:26.planning. We're not good at long range planning. The measures that
:20:26. > :20:33.should have been taken to solve this problem or to avoid the
:20:33. > :20:43.problem, should have been taken ten years ago. In our society we do not
:20:43. > :20:43.
:20:43. > :20:47.do that. This is not just an issue hearing Sao Paulo. Traffic jams
:20:47. > :20:50.array problem all over the world, particularly in developing
:20:50. > :20:56.countries. People are getting wealthier and everybody wants to
:20:56. > :21:06.own a car. Cities are getting bigger. It seems clear that we all
:21:06. > :21:08.
:21:08. > :21:18.will just have to learn how to live stuck in traffic. It is like a sea
:21:18. > :21:24.of cars. For this woman it is time to head home. It is Friday evening.
:21:24. > :21:31.5pm. It is the worst possible time. There are people going back home